COCAINE PRICE IN US STABLE, OFFICIAL SAYS

BOGOTA - Cocaine prices in the United States are not rising, a sign that
the US-backed Plan Colombia offensive on drugs is not denting the supply to
the world's top cocaine consuming nation, the head of the US Drug
Enforcement Agency said yesterday.

DEA chief Donnie Marshall, on a visit to Colombia, cited reports that
supply may be outstripping demand in the United States.

Prices ''have not gone up since Plan Colombia began. ... There are many
that think the cocaine market is saturated now in the United States,''
Marshall said.

DEA sources said US street prices have remained stable since Plan Colombia
was launched in December, at up to $36,000 per kilo.

The United States is pouring $1 billion in mostly military aid to support
Plan Colombia. It will supply 14 Black Hawk helicopters and is training an
elite Colombian army battalion to provide cover for crop dusters and
destroy drug labs.

In its 2000 report on Colombia, the DEA said Colombia could produce up to
580 tons of cocaine, double Colombia's potential of just five years ago.

A new report from the United Nations indicates that production capacity
could be more than 800 tons per year.

Colombia's war-torn countryside, prowled by leftist guerrillas and outlawed
right-wing paramilitary forces, has provided the ideal safe haven for drug
growers, who pay the warlords ''taxes'' on their crops in return for
protection.

Fighting, which has claimed 40,000 lives in recent years, has flared since
armed groups took over the drug trade after the destruction of the
notorious Cali and Medellin cartels.

Marshall said Colombia's cocaine traffickers were no longer seeking to
increase their presence in the US market.

''They're not focusing on increasing their markets inside the United
States,'' Marshall said. ''Rather, we see that many of these organizations
are looking toward Europe and the former Soviet Union for creating their
new markets.''